Lauren Roberts, Editor-in-Chief of BiblioBuffet, kindly shares another of her fabric bookmarks with us. There is no embroidery on this one, but there’s a wonderful story behind it, and it inspires ideas for things we might incorporate in the bookmarks we create and stitch.

Lauren believes the woman in the picture is Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, a leader in the Women’s Suffrage movement. Follow that link for Lauren’s excellent article about the bookmark and Carrie.

I’ve talked before about “membroidery”; i.e., memorializing people, events, and places with our embroidery. I think doing that in bookmark format is a Brilliant Idea.

I also like how the photo is incorporated in the bookmark. We could do the same: print a photo, cut it out, punch two holes in the top and bottom, and attach with a length of ribbon. Postcard photos, news photos, kids’ school photos. Or how about artwork? Your own or a child’s. Reduce an image of it that will fit on a bookmark.

And then there’s the text which has been written or painted on the silk ribbon. Remember the painted flowers on the mittens two weeks ago? Mixed media is hot right now, and with fabric markers and paint pens, we can easily add handwriting and drawings to our embroidered bookmarks.

Isn’t it fun to wonder about who made this bookmark and why? Gayle at Accents, Inc. reminds me that “we can never know what will become an heirloom.” When I make a bookmark, I don’t make it with the idea that it will be an heirloom or collectors’ item someday; I make bookmarks to be used. But we never know, do we? What might someone think of our hand-embroidered bookmarks a hundred years from now?

Do you suppose the increased number of embroidered bookmarks currently being made because of the Bookmark Challenge will result in a greater quantity surviving and being collected in the future, much like the perforated paper ones from the Victorian era? Wow. That’s an interesting thought.